There’s no doubt that within the property market, the pressure remains to the downside.

Despite house prices remaining fairly static, with confidence levels low and mortgages still hard to secure, transaction levels have stayed woefully flat. They remain at around half their pre-crash peak, and are unlikely to tick back up until the New Year.

A major factor in all this is that the deposits demanded by lenders are simply too big a hurdle for many would-be buyers.

Economic logic suggests that in the face of such puny demand, sellers should start cutting prices. But that simply isn’t happening.

Many vendors are still being totally unrealistic with their asking prices, while others who bought with a high LTV mortgage simply don’t own enough equity to be able to drop their prices.

We’re in a difficult position where sellers can’t afford to lower their asking prices and prospective buyers can’t afford to offer more. The result is the chronic stagnation we’re seeing.